


(Not Quite) A Surprise Party!

by theofficialheartwarmer



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Birthdays, Canon-Era, F/M, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-27 20:50:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15693132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theofficialheartwarmer/pseuds/theofficialheartwarmer
Summary: Katherine’s birthday is coming up, and Jack asks the other newsies to help him throw her a surprise party. The results are... interesting to say the least.





	(Not Quite) A Surprise Party!

**Author's Note:**

> This is dedicated to my mutual Cat, whose birthday is actually today!! Go follow her on Tumblr @newsieofnj !! Happy birthday, Cat!

“Alright, alright, everyone inside,” Jack hollered, ushering the other newsboys into the small deli. Jacobi himself looked up from the counter, smiling and waving at each boy. Jack shot him a grin in return. 

Once everyone was inside and seated, Jack made his way to the front of the room. “Listen up, fellas, I’se got an announcement to make,” he said. 

“You all know Katherine,” he began, and the other boys nodded. Of course they knew Katherine. She and Jack had been going out for close to a year. She was the mom friend of the group, always making sure everyone had what they needed and scolding them when they acted up. Jack’s boys loved her. 

“Well, her birthday’s comin up this Saturday,” he said. “And I was hopin you guys would wanna help me throw her a party. She’s been an awesome girlfriend to me, and an awesome friend to you guys, and I think a party would show her how much we love her. We could have it right here, at Jacobi’s. There’ll be cake and ice cream and decorations and presents and games and music and dancin. What’d ya say, are you in?” 

Cheers erupted from the tables. Yup, they were definitely in. 

“Oh, and one more thing,” Jack said, waiting for the boys to quiet down again. “I was kinda hopin it could be a surprise party?” 

There was silence for a few seconds. Then, Race piped up. 

“Aww come on, Kelly! You really think that’s gonna work? We all know Davey can’t keep a secret to save his life!! We call him ‘Mouth’ for a reason!!” 

“Hey!” Davey quipped at Race. “I’ll have you know I am a pretty good secret keeper, thank you very much!! For instance, I never told anyone about the time I caught you and Spot Conlon making out on the fire escape!” Davey, realizing what he had just done, covered his mouth. Race’s face turned a bright shade of red as he glared at Davey, who in turn offered an apologetic look. The other boys laughed and hooted in the background. 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but I can’t help it if sometimes things just…. slip out,” Davey said. “It’s just who I am.” 

“Race is right, Kelly,” Elmer groaned. “Do you really think we’ll be able to go behind Katherine’s back to plan all of this? The girl’s a genius, she’ll figure it out before we even get started!” The other boys nodded in agreement. 

“Look, guys, I know it’s a lot to ask,” Jack started. “But she means so much to all of us, the least we can do is try, right? Please?” 

“Ok, you’re right, I’m in,” Finch said proudly. The other boys muttered various forms of the same thing. 

“Alright, awesome!” Jack exclaimed. “Okay, so here’s the plan. The party will be at 2:00 on Saturday. Romeo, Specs and Davey, you three will be in charge of decorations. Pick out some balloons, streamers, and whatever else you see fit. Make sure you arrive an hour before the party to get things set up. Mr. Jacobi has volunteered to be in charge of sandwiches, snacks, and drinks. I know I’m going to regret this, but Race, Albert and JoJo, you three are gonna be in charge of ordering and picking up the cake. Katherine likes chocolate, so just have it be chocolate with chocolate frosting and maybe say ‘Happy Birthday Katherine’ in purple icing. Finch and Elmer, you two are gonna go pick up the ice cream from the parlor. I already placed the order, so all you’se gotta do is pick it up. Henry, Crutchie and Les, you guys are gonna go to Medda’s theater and ask her if she can provide some kind of entertainment for the party. The rest of yous, all you gotta do is keep your mouths shut, show up at 2:00, and have a good time. Got it?” 

“Whatta bout you, Cowboy, what’s your job?” Henry asked. 

“My job is gonna be getting Katherine to Jacobi’s without her knowing it’s for her birthday party,” Jack replied. “Does the plan sound good to everyone?” 

“Yes!” They replied. Jack grinned. If they could pull this off, he’d be grateful for the rest of his life. 

***

“Are you sure about this, Race? Jack did specifically tell us that we were in charge of orderin’ and pickin’ up the cake, not making it,” JoJo asked nervously. 

“Aww, don’t worry so much, JoJo! I know for a fact that this homemade cake is gonna be way better than any store-bought one! It’s my ma’s old family recipe, I’se made it a hundred times,” Race replied, brushing off JoJo’s hesitance. 

“Yeah, lighten up a bit JoJo! Kid knows what he’s doin!” Albert chimed in, slinging an arm around JoJo’s shoulders. 

“Thanks for the confidence, Albo,” Race said, skimming the recipe for chocolate cake on the recipe card. “Course, last time I actually did make this cake was five, no six years ago. Man, it’s been awhile,” he muttered under his breath. 

The three boys set to work on the cake. It was all going well until they got to the part where they had to add in the sugar. 

“Now it says right here that we need 1 cup of sugar, but I can’t remember if we’se supposed to supposed to use regular sugar or powdered sugar,” Race admitted, scratching his neck. 

“Wouldn’t the recipe clarify if it meant powdered sugar? It doesn’t say “powdered sugar”, it just says “sugar”, so shouldn’t we just use regular sugar?” JoJo asked. 

“Yeah, but earlier the recipe called for cocoa powder,” said Albert. “Shouldn’t the ingredients be consistent, powder and powder?” 

“Can’t argue with that logic,” replied Race, as he dumped the correct amount of powdered sugar into the mixing bowl. 

They quickly finished making the cake batter and poured it into 2 pans. “Off to the oven, it goes! Nice work, gentlemen,” Race complimented. 

“I have a bad feeling about this,” JoJo said gravely. 

*** 

“Good afternoon, gentlemen, how can I be of service today?” The man running the box office asked. 

“We’se lookin’ for Miss Medda,” Crutchie replied. 

“Yeah, we need ta ask her if she can perform at our friend’s birthday party on Saturday. Nothin too over the top, just a few songs or somethin’,” Les said. 

“I’m afraid you’re out of luck, boys. Miss Medda’s out of town, taking care of some business down in Philadelphia. She won’t be back till next Tuesday,” the box office man said.

“Dammit, what are we gonna do now?” Henry asked frustratedly. 

“Guess we’ll just have to tell Jack that she can’t be there. That’s a real bummer,” Crutchie sighed dejectedly. 

“I’m sorry for the inconvenience. Can I interest you gentlemen in some half-off tickets to tonight’s vaudeville performance?” The box office man offered. 

Les’s face lit up, but Henry smacked his shoulder. “Thanks but no thanks,” Henry told to box office man. Then the three of them exited the theater, trying to come up with a solution for their current problem. 

***

“Thank gosh we got the easy job,” Finch said to Elmer as they walked down the street to Jacobi’s, each of them carrying a gallon of chocolate ice cream. 

“Yeah, there’s no way we can really screw this up, unlike a lotta the other jobs. How’d ya think Race, Albert and JoJo are doin wit the cake?” Elmer asked. 

“Uh, there’s no way somethin’ hasn’t gone wrong yet,” Finch replied. “I betcha Race decided that they’se gonna make the cake themselves insteada just orderin one from a bakery like Jack told ‘em to. And then mess up the recipe so badly that the cake is inedible.” 

“You’se sure got a lotta faith in them three, don’t ya Finch?” Elmer said teasingly. 

“They’se nice fellas, but they ain’t the sharpest tools in the shed. Anyways, who cares if they mess it up? It’s the sentiment that counts, right?” 

“Yeah, I guess that’s true,” Elmer agreed as they approached the deli. 

“Now Jacobi said there’s a special ice box in the back for us to put this in, one that holds more ice than usual and will keep the ice cream cold till Saturday,” Finch said. 

“Then let’s get it in there quickly. We don’t want the ice cream to melt 2 days before the party,” Elmer said, earning a halfhearted snort from Finch. 

“Yeah, that would be a disaster,” Finch responded. 

The boys put both gallons of ice cream into the ice box and then shut the door. 

“I feel like we’se forgettin’ something, but I can’t think of what,” Finch said, rubbing his chin. 

“Nah, I think we’se all good here,” Albert reassured him. “Now let’s get a move on, those afternoon papes ain’t gonna sell themselves!” 

And so the boys left the deli, both of them completely forgetting that Jacobi told them the ice box needed to be refilled with ice in order for the ice cream to be kept cold enough. 

***

“Any guesses on why it looks like chocolate soup mixed wit burnt sugar?” asked Albert. The three boys stood at the counter, looking at the pans of cake, or rather, what should have been the pans of cake. 

“Why do ya think, dumbass? Clearly we was supposed to use the other sugar,” Race said, the dejected tone in his voice evident. 

“I knew it, I knew it,” JoJo muttered. 

“I can’t believe we screwed this up. We had one job and we still messed it up. How are we gonna tell Jack?” Race asked. 

The boys shrugged and shook their heads. How could they possibly get out of this mess that they created? 

*** 

Nothing else went wrong until the morning of the party. The only mishap Jack actually knew about was the absence of Medda. Of course he was disappointed, but what could he do? And if that was the worst thing that happened while trying to successfully execute the planning of this party, then that was still pretty good.

Unfortunately for him, that was not going to be the worst thing that happened. 

Davey was at the corner store, picking up some groceries for his family before heading over to Jacobi’s to help decorate, when he happened to spot a very familiar head of reddish-brown curls. Immediately recognizing who it was, Davey quickly tried to exit the store and avoid a conversation, but before he could do so, Katherine spotted him and waved him over. Davey mentally kicked himself for not leaving quickly enough. 

“Hey Katherine, happy birthday!” Davey said, trying to make his voice cheerful and not suspicious. 

“Thanks, Davey! Fancy meeting you here,” she replied, smiling. 

“Yeah, guess so. How’s it feel to be seventeen?” He asked.

They continued chatting for a few more minutes, and Davey almost pulled off the task of keeping it together. Almost.

“I actually can’t stay and talk much longer, Davey. I’m supposed to go meet Jack at the lodging house. He said he has something special planned for today,” Katherine said apologetically. 

“Yeah, I actually have to get going too. I need to get over to Jacobi’s to help set up for the surprise party,” Davey replied casually, not even realizing what he was saying. 

“Surprise party?” Katherine said, her eyes shooting up. 

Davey brought his hands up to cover his mouth, but it was too late. The look of horror was evident on his face. 

“You guys are throwing me a surprise party?” Katherine asked again, her voice filling with excitement. 

“Listen, you cannot tell ANYONE that you know about it! Especially Jack! He’d kill me if he found out that I told you!” Davey said frantically. 

“Don’t worry Jacobs, your secret’s safe with me,” Katherine reassured, winking. “I’ll catch you later, I have to go meet Jack so he can escort me to my surprise party. Good luck with setting everything up!” She then hurried out of the store with a gleeful bounce in her step. 

Davey groaned loudly. “God, what have I done?” He sure hoped that somehow everything would be okay. 

*** 

“Ok, I may have just royally screwed up the entire element of surprise of this party, so please tell me all other elements are running smoothly,” Davey announced as he walked into Jacobi’s. 

“Sorry dude, no can do,” Romeo said, pointing to what was supposed to be the “Happy Birthday” banner. Instead of saying “Happy Birthday”, it said “It’s a Boy!” in blue lettering. 

“What? How did this happen? I was there when we bought the sign!” Davey exclaimed. 

“Apparently they got the labeling wrong on the packaging,” Specs explained. “By the time we actually opened it up, it was too late to go back to the store and try to replace it.” 

Davey rubbed his head frustratedly. “Is that the only other thing that’s gone wrong?” He asked nervously. 

“Nope,” Elmer replied, popping the “p”. “We had to throw away the ice cream because someone forgot to put ice in the ice box.” 

Finch glared at him. “Hey, that was just as much your fault as it was mine! You were the one who was so sure we wasn’t forgettin anything!”

“Ok ok, enough,” Davey hissed at both of them. “At least there’s still cake. The cake is still perfect, right?” He asked, looking hopefully to Albert, Race and JoJo. 

“Yeah, about that. Funny story actually,” Race began, and Davey felt his heart sink. “We wanted ta make the cake ourselves, cause homemade always tastes better than store-bought. But then we used the wrong kind a sugar, so the cake turned out like chocolate soup. So then we turned ta plan B, which was go to the bakery. By now we didn’t have enough time ta order a custom cake, so we had ta pick a pre-made one and just get the icing done while we was there. They only had vanilla cake pre-made, and the worker spelled Katherine’s name with a “C” even after I specifically told him it was spelled with a “K”, so now the cake says, “Happy Birthday, Catherine!” With a “C”!” 

Davey took some deep breaths, trying to calm himself. “It’s all going to be ok,” he whispered. “At least there’s still cake, even if it’s not the right cake.” 

“Well, we’ll work with what we’ve got, and it’ll still be a damn good party, right guys?” He asked, partly to reassure the rest of the boys and partly to convince himself that it would all come together in the end. 

“Oh, also, Medda can’t make it, but at least Jack knows about that already,” Henry said. 

Davey sighed. Pulling the scraps of the party together was the only thing they could do. 

*** 

“They’se comin, they’se comin,” Romeo whisper-yelled as he ran through the door of the deli. “They’se right up the street!”

“Quick, everybody hide, and be ready to shout ‘surprise’ when Jack brings Katherine in,” Davey instructed, ducking behind the counter. The other Newsies scurried to find hiding spaces. 

Just then, the door to the deli opened, and Jack and Katherine stepped in. 

“SURPRISE!!” The Newsies all shouted at once. Katherine gasped, a huge smile forming on her face. She glanced around the room, looking at the cake full of spelling errors and the sign for the wrong occasion. She began to laugh, the hilarity of the whole scene overwhelming her. 

“Thanks guys, I can’t believe you did this all for me,” she said once she had regained her composure. 

“It was all Jackie’s idea,” Crutchie replied. 

Jack, who had previously been mouthing “I’ll kill you” at Race for screwing up the cake, looked up at the mention of his name. Katherine gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, causing him to blush furiously. 

“Well, I couldn’t have done it without these guys.” 

*** 

The party was in full swing, and Katherine was having an amazing time. Sure it was a little unconventional, but so were the boys. Besides, when had she ever radiated “normal” herself?”

She looked across the room and saw Jack sulking in the corner. Wondering what that was all about, she quickly made it to the other side of the room and sat down next to him. 

“What’s wrong, Jack? Why aren’t you having a good time?” She asked, rubbing his back. 

“It’s just, this was supposed ta be so much better. There was supposed ta be a sign that said ‘happy birthday’, not one that said ‘it’s a boy’ and the cake was supposed to be chocolate with your name spelled correctly and there was supposed to be ice cream and entertainment and instead we have this. Hell, the only thing that went right about this party was the surprise part!” 

“Well….. let’s just say Davey and I had an encounter earlier today where I learned some surprising information,” Katherine admitted. 

“Dammit, he screwed that up too? I knew I was pushin my luck when I asked the fellas ta help out, but even I thought they could do better than this. Anyways, I’m sorry this party sucks and isn’t perfect the way it was supposed to be,” Jack mumbled. 

“Jack, are you kidding me? This party is great! Of course it isn’t perfect, but I never wanted perfect! No one has ever cared enough about me before to try and plan something like this,” Katherine responded, taking Jack’s hand in hers as a small smile began to creep up on his face. “The fact that Race screwed up the cake in the first place showed that he cared enough to try and make it himself. The fact that Davey accidentally ruined the surprise showed that he was too eager about the party to contain himself. And, the fact that you went through so much trouble to plan this whole thing shows how much you care about me,” she said sweetly. Jack squeezed her hand. Katherine continued her appreciative monologue. 

“And who cares that the ice cream melted? We have plenty of food! Who cares that the sign was wrong? We all know what the right occasion is! And who cares that there was no hired entertainment? I’d say that handstand contest going on between Race and Albert right now is pretty damn entertaining,” Katherine said, gesturing across the room to where both boys stood upside down on their heads. Jack laughed. 

“Be that as it may, I’d say this party could use some safer forms of entertainment, wouldn’t you?” A new voice asked. Standing in the doorframe was Medda, all dressed up and and holding some sheet music. 

“Medda? What are you doing here? The theater said you were out of town until Tuesday for business!” Jack exclaimed, running over to give her a hug. 

“And miss the birthday party of the century? I think not. Don’t you worry, Jack, I finished all my business in Philadelphia early and decided to stop by to see if you still needed any entertainment,” Medda explained, returning Jack’s hug. 

“Oh, do we ever! Show us what you got, Medda!” Jack replied. 

Medda sat down at the piano in the corner of the deli and began playing an upbeat, lively tune. 

Jack approached Katherine shyly. “May I have this dance, my lady?” He asked. 

Katherine giggled. “Certainly, kind sir,” she replied, pulling him close. Together they swayed to the music as everyone whooped and whistled. This was, by far, the best birthday she ever had.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, everyone! Kudos and commmets make my whole week! My tumblr is @theofficialheartwarmer if you want to see more content like this!


End file.
